Golf Pros Make History in Gwinnett

Duluth”s TPC Sugarloaf Hosts the Greater Gwinnett Championship this April

Golf aficionados who love, live, and dream the game will gather from across the Southeast for this April”s Greater Gwinnett Championship. The 54-hole PGA tournament, hosted by the Gwinnett Sports Commission, features 81 Champions Tour professionals competing for the $1.8 million purse. This event will be held at TPC Sugarloaf golf course in Duluth, April 15 through 21.

“We are so excited to have the PGA Tour back in Gwinnett County and back at the beautiful TPC Sugarloaf course,”# says Stan Hall, the executive director of the Gwinnett Sports Commission. “Gwinnett has a long and wonderful history with the PGA Tour and this Champions Tour event is the perfect fit to bring professional golf back to this venue. Its presence has been sorely missed.”#

It has been 12 years since a Champions Tour event was played in the Atlanta area. For Gwinnett, the PGA Tour is a welcome return, as TPC Sugarloaf will host the tournament through 2016. The inaugural event will not just be a treat for metro area golf fans, but will also shine a spotlight on Gwinnett as a thriving community, as well as have a tremendous affect on the local economy.

“The economic impact that a PGA Tour brings to any jurisdiction, Gwinnett or otherwise, is significant. A tour of this magnitude is estimated to produce about $12 to $18 million in economic stimulus,” says Hall. “Another great aspect of hosting this event is it offers us the opportunity to highlight the great features of both Gwinnett and TPC Sugarloaf.”

All three rounds of the Greater Gwinnett Championship will be televised nationally by Golf Channel, which reaches 83 million homes. The telecast will also be distributed internationally to 174 countries through various partners.

PGA Champions Tour events have always attracted some of the most distinguished names in golf and the Greater Gwinnett Championship is no exception. These professionals are loved by golf enthusiasts far and wide and have singularly won many recognized golf tournaments across the nation. Twenty-seven of the top-30 players from last year”s Champions Tour money list have committed to the tournament, including John Cook, the winner of the season-opening event. “Like all my fellow Champions Tour professionals, I am very much looking forward to returning to the Atlanta area for the Greater Gwinnett Championship,”# says Cook.

One of the purposes of a Champions Tour is to generate a significant charitable impact in the communities in which it plays. Plus, all PGA Tour events are required to be 100 percent non-profit. With an overall focus of first year giving on healthcare and education, the Greater Gwinnett Championship has chosen five charitable partners that will benefit from this tournament.# These organizations are Gwinnett Children”s Shelter, Gwinnett Technical College, Children”s Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia Gwinnett College, and Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation.

“This event will provide much needed dollars to these fantastic charitable partners to foster their core missions,” says Hall.

Along with the three-day tournament, held from Friday, April 19 to Sunday, April 21, amateur golf fans have an opportunity for an once-in-a-lifetime experience playing with celebrities and professionals. The Championship Celebrity-Am event, held on Monday, April 15, features NFL quarterback Matt Ryan and a series of other well-known celebrities. On Wednesday, April 17 and Thursday, April 18, the Championship Pro-Am will partner amateurs with professional golfers for a daylong event.

The Greater Gwinnett Championship is presented by Mitsubishi Electric Cooling & Heating. For more information on the tournament and how to purchase tickets, visit greatergwinnettchampionship.com.